What the Heck Is a Boppo Tablet (and Should I Buy One for My Kid)?
In the growing world of screen-free tech toys, the Boppo — a combination game tablet and audio player — is unique. Marketed for kids ages 1 to 12 years old, it comes preloaded with over 50 activities, from toddler-friendly lessons in colors and counting to simple arcade games to trivia, podcasts, and audiobooks aimed at older kids. There’s no subscription, and almost all of the content is available for free with no additional purchase necessary. Unlike the Yoto player or the Toniebox, the bulk of the offerings live on the player itself, so it doesn’t require any cards or figures to play, making it great for travel as long as you keep it charged.
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It’s also unique in the way it looks, like a cross between a computer keyboard and a pop fidget (or an upside-down ice tray), with ten round buttons that light up. Kids navigate through a series of nested menus guided by voice instructions and colorful lights to get to the activity they want. If you want to add more to what your Boppo can do, there are several themed “Toppos” — farm, dinos, solar system, symphony, and more — that you can buy for about $23 each. These are the closest comparison to a Yoto card or a Tonies figure and fit snuggly over the Boppo’s buttons to trigger ten new activities each.
My son is almost 4 years old and has always loved pushing buttons so, along with Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio, whose daughters are 8 and 11 years old, I decided to give the Boppo a spin.
There are so many games, podcasts, and activities to discover
I started testing the Boppo (along with three Toppos) about a year ago when my son was about to turn 3. The setup process was similar to that of devices like the Yoto or the Toniebox and involved pairing the tablet with the Boppo app on my phone, and connecting it to the Wi-Fi in my apartment. One nice thing is that after the initial setup, you don’t need the app for much, because nearly all of the content lives natively on the device. But if you want to use the Boppo as a music player, you’ll need to upload your favorite songs as MP3s. I found this to be one of the only pain points since I don’t have easy access to a bunch of MP3s.
When you turn it on, all of the buttons light up and a voice says “Press a button once to find an activity, press again to play.” If you choose “sound activities,” for example, it will bring you to another menu that lists ten more options, like “funny sounds” or “drum kit” or “beat builder” or “sound machine.” Some of these activities are pretty straightforward: Hit a button and a silly sound plays. But others are more interactive, letting you pretend to be a DJ or create your own rhythms that you can play back in a loop. The same is true for all of the other categories including color activities, number activities, languages, arcade games, podcasts, audiobooks, and more. (I do wish there was a back button, however, so you didn’t have to revert to the main menu every time you finish an activity.)
In the Boppo app, you can see and read descriptions for the entire catalogue and browse a library of preloaded podcasts like Greeking Out, Wow in the World, Story Pirates, and more. You can also add your own music or audiobooks, by uploading MP3 files, so kids can listen to their favorite songs and books on repeat. There are some original Boppo songs you can listen to as well, but there’s no kids’ radio station like the one integrated into Yoto players. You also get two preloaded audiobooks, My Father’s Dragon and Winnie the Pooh.
The simple games and stories appeal to toddlers, while tweens go for the podcasts
When we first started testing the Boppo, my son’s attention span was shorter. So while he happily played with the device, it was only for quick stints at a time. I would also have to choose the activity for him, otherwise he would just push all the buttons and wander through the menus getting frustrated. At first he liked the color activities best where you push a button, listen to its name, and then watch all the buttons change to that color. But as he’s matured and become a more patient listener, he has been able to discover more ways to play with the Boppo on his own and now he even enjoys playing some of the two-player arcade games with me. Boppo is not exactly an open-ended toy, but the fact that the function and color of each button changes depending on the activity makes playing with it pleasingly exploratory in a way that resonates with toddlers. I have been testing it for months and I am still discovering new ways to play with it.
Currently, my son mostly wants to play with the symphony or the farm animal Toppos. This might be a tactile thing, since he also loves playing with them on their own by pushing the buttons in and out like a pop fidget. They are obviously visually appealing to him, as they are printed with pictures of animals and musical instruments that he can recognize. But I also think the activities are well tailored to his specific age range of “elder preschooler.” The animal Toppo has a game where you have to help a bee pollinate flowers and a story about a rabbit who gets lost on the farm in the rain. And we were both happy to learn that after stopping a story in the middle one night, we later got to choose whether to resume where we left off or start from the beginning, simply by pressing one or another of the animal buttons. Boppo is full of those kinds of “nice-touch” design details, like how its lights get brighter from left to right as you increase the volume. And even when it’s turned off, the keys make a satisfying clickety-clackety sound.
Trolio’s kids are already at the upper end of the Boppo age range and don’t get as excited about the games as my son. Her 8-year-old daughter likes goofing around with the funny sounds, but mostly prefers to play podcasts on it in the background while doing other things. Trolio’s 11-year-old daughter hasn’t shown consistent interest in the Boppo, but would be happy to listen to an audiobook on it now and then. Because of this, Trolio says it’s not a gadget she would choose to buy now, since her kids can consume most of the same audio on other devices. But if they she were shopping for this kind of screen-free toy while they were younger, she’d consider it more strongly.
It’s a solid grow-with-you toy for game-loving little kids
I love that the Boppo does more than one thing and that it’s easy for children, even very little children who can’t read, to explore independently. I also love that’s useable by toddlers as young as 1 year old. It’s easy to see the benefit in buying one for younger children who will eventually make use of the huge archive of content and other activities.
Boppo also comes with a lot more included content than if you were to spend the same amount of money on a Yoto Mini plus a few cards, a Toniebox Lite plus a few figures (with no option for games), or a Toniebox 2 starter set. And the cost of buying additional Yoto cards or Tonies adds up fast. (Of course, you’ll always have the choice of spending more on Toppos, but they aren’t as integral to the Boppo experience as the other brands’ add-ons.)
So if you have a little kid who likes playing games, I would 100 percent consider Boppo over the Yoto, the Toniebox, or any other interactive talking toy for toddlers, because of how versatile it is and because of the way it challenges little kids to listen and follow directions while enjoying many different kinds of activities.
More screen-free interactive toys we like
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The new Yoto Mini gives kids a shortcut to 20 favorite songs or stories via its big green button.
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A less expensive Toniebox that's easier for little hands to carry around.
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Not technically a screen, this retro-looking gadget projects picture books with narration.
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